What is federalism? What are the differences between federal and state's rights?
Before you begin this lesson watch this video to review:
Federalism is basically a system of government which has a Constitution that separates power between federal and state governments.
The FEDERAL government is the NATIONAL government. So Federalism in the United States is power divided between each state and the FEDERAL government.
Remember the Federal Government is made up of three branches; the Executive, Judicial, and Legislative.
So what powers do states have? And what powers does the Federal Government have? Take a look at this diagram:
There are powers that the states have that aren't listed on the diagram above. States can establish public schools, however,there is also a FEDERAL DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION and if states want Federal money, they have to follow regulations set-up by the Department of Education.
States 'Pass license requirements for professionals'. They can 'regulate alcoholic beverages'.
So who decided all this?
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. And remember the Constitution is the Supreme Law of the Land. Which means what the Constitution says, is law. No matter what. If a law contradicts the Constitution, then you've gotta get rid of the law. The Supreme Court is the one that decides if laws passed by Congress are Unconstitutional. Remember what that's called? JUDICIAL REVIEW.
Governments have power. The Constitution is the one that gives them power. What are these called? DELEGATED POWERS. The Constitution has given each separate system of government specific powers. There are three types of Delegated powers:implied, expressed, and inherent.
Implied Powers are powers that aren't spelled out in the Constitution. For example, Congress has the power to 'make laws to carry out what's in the Constitution'. It doesn't say what Congress can make laws about. So they use their IMPLIED powers to write legislation. They've written laws about building the interstate highway system. No where in the Constitution does it say that Congress has the right to establish the Interstate Highway System. The founding fathers didn't know there were going to be automobiles and cars. Congress says that since it has the power to control INTERSTATE COMMERCE that it has the right to control the Highway System. That's an example of Congress exercising an implied power.
Expressed Powers are powers that are written directly into the Constitution. An example of this is that in the Constitution it says that Congress has the power to collect taxes and coin money. So when the Federal government starts printing money they're exercising their delegated and expressed powers. The Constitution expressly says they have the right to 'coin money'.
Inherent Powers. These are powers that aren't anywhere in the Constitution. What are some inherent powers? Regulating immigration. The Constitution does not give the government power to regulate immigration. Another example of an inherent power is acquiring territory. The Constitution does not give the government the right to acquire territory.
You have probably heard of the Louisiana Purchase. President Thomas Jefferson bought land from France that doubled the size of the United States. Problem was that no where in the Constitution does it say that the President can purchase land. It's a little ironic because Thomas Jefferson was one of the Presidents who didn't want to have too much power, and then he did something that he didn't technically have the power to do. Thomas said that 'ruling the land gave him the right to buy land'. Do you think this was good or fair ? After all the Louisiana Purchase was a very good thing for the United States.
The difference between IMPLIED and INHERENT can get a little confusing. IMPLIED means that the Founding Fathers probably wanted the president to have those specific powers, but didn't write them directly in the Constitution. The Founding Fathers wanted the Federal Government to be able to build highways between states, but they didn't give them that right in the Constitution... probably because cars didn't exist when the Constitution was written.
INHERENT powers on the other hand, the Founding Fathers probably did not want the Federal Government to have. If they wanted the President to be able to purchase land they would have written it into the Constitution. So when Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory... he didn't have any permission to do so, he just did it because he wanted to, and he thought it would be better for the country to have more land.
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Some people say the federal government has too much power. Remember when we talked about loose and strict constructionists? Strict constructionists might be opposed to implied or even inherent powers because they aren't spelled out in the Constitution.
This was actually a major issue when our Founding Fathers were drafting the Constitution. Should we give more power to the states or the federal government? Remember they had just been 'freed' from being controlled by the King of England, so they weren't too keen on creating a national government that had lots of control over its citizens.
Those who believe the states should have more rights point to the 10th amendment to the Constitution. Their argument is pretty strong, take a look at what the 10th Amendment says:
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people"
Standard 3: Objective A & B